Russian steelmaker Amurstal, based in Russia’s Far East region, has been facing a certain steel scrap deficit as a result of measures against the spread of Covid-19. In particular, scrap suppliers have their operations blocked as their business is not included in the list of the vital business activities. Amurstal has asked the local authorities not to block the activities of scrap collectors and the raw material transportation process as it affects the operations of the steel producer. The company requires 70,000-80,000 mt of ferrous scrap per month.
In such circumstances Amurstal has decided to substitute part of the needed scrap by hot briquetted iron (HBI) supplied by Lebedinsky GOK, a subsidiary of Metalloinvest group. The steel producer has conducted a series of trials and concluded that HBI usage together with scrap did not have a negative effect on furnace productivity and did not cause any technical problems. Overall, HBI will replace around 15 percent of scrap.
In April, Amurstal plans to produce 67,000 mt of billet, thus doubling the figure for March, and will require around 8,000 mt of HBI, according to local media sources. In the first quarter of the year, the company produced 77,700 mt of steel products, SteelOrbis has learned.
